master of the senate the years of lyndon johnson

The book has three principal arguments: that Johnson's assumption of power revealed elements of his character that the 1950s presented a transformative period in the Senate's institutional history and that as the 1950s progressed, Johnson's personal ambition and the public good increasingly pointed to the same policy options.

But he also admires Johnson's ability to change how the Senate did business, and, eventually, to use his power to help pass the first piece of civil rights legislation in nine decades. Caro still portrays Johnson as a fundamentally unethical figure willing to subordinate principles to achieve partisan gain. But Master of the Senate presents a more nuanced view of Johnson than did the earlier books, especially Means of Ascent. Many of the Caro series's characteristics are present-use of an extensive base of interviews, effective story-telling technique, excessive length. Master of the Senate may surprise readers of volumes 1 and 2 of Robert A. Lyndon Johnson and the Transformation of the Senate Reviewed by KC Johnson (Brooklyn College, City University of New York) Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson. If you like this, you might also be interested in All Too Human.Robert A. Not just available but brilliantly narrated by Grover Gardner.īoth author and narrator are lucky to have the other as such a skilled part-creator of the audio book.īuy Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Volume 3) by Robert A. The second is that an audio version is available – suitable, for example, for listening to when out delivering contemporary political leaflets. One is that this volume isn’t simply a biography of a slice of Lyndon Johnson’s career, it’s also a scintillating history of the US Senate and the way in which power and formal political rules interact. Included in that is a warning of the fallibility of long-term political forecasts with its account of the years when it looked like the Republicans could become the political voice of the African American community propelled in no small part by Richard Nixon. It is hardly breaking or surprising news to say that Robert Caro’s Master of the Senate, a volume of biography covering Lyndon Johnson’s time as Majority Leader of the US Senate, is as brilliant and enjoyable as it is long.īut two particular points may be worth highlighting for anyone else interested in politics who hasn’t yet read it, and is perhaps even put off by the thought of finding the time for its 1,000 plus pages.

Master of the senate the years of lyndon johnson